Accounts, usage, billing and service payments
An account is the commercial boundary for its libraries. A library is a separate service/permission boundary. Account membership does not automatically grant library access, and a library role does not automatically grant billing administration.
Use the correct account workflow
For a self-service Cloud account, authorised users open Account menu → Manage account for Overview, Usage, Plan and packs, Overages and credits, Alerts, Billing and invoices, Payment methods and Account details. Contract-based Government Cloud/Institutional accounts use their agreed commercial/support route rather than Cloud checkout.
Account owner, account administrator, billing administrator and viewer roles have different permitted actions. Check your current role and the account shown before changing a plan, payment method or alert.
Trial and publishing
The Cloud trial is 30 days on Launch without payment details, with design, User view and QA available. Production deployment and custom domains require the subscription to have started. Selecting a plan, starting checkout or scheduling a subscription does not by itself unlock them.
Paid access depends on confirmed payment or approved invoice terms. Scheduled/pending changes are not effective entitlements. Plan/cadence changes normally take effect at renewal; pack increases require payment and reductions take effect at their renewal.
Read usage and credit units
| Item | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| Account usage | Pooled across its linked libraries. Check the returned period and recorded time; stored totals can lag activity. |
| Monthly allowances | Use UTC calendar months. Annual billing does not make every allowance annual. |
| Storage | Decimal GB: 1,000,000,000 bytes. Current capacity and period usage are different measures. |
| Credits | Confirmed available funds differ from reserved, pending and scheduled amounts. API minor currency units are pence/cents; read the stated units before displaying a balance. |
| Packs, overages and overrides | Use the account's effective paid settings, agreed budget and current catalogue. A configured budget does not prove automatic charging is enabled. |
AI processing versus Darcy assistance
Summarise/Categorise with AI, real Test AI and real environment calls share account AI credits; Darcy design assistance has its own allowances. AI credit allowances reset each UTC month, including annual plans. Additional processing is sold in 1,000-credit blocks under the confirmed overage budget/funding rules; unused purchased capacity carries forward.
Failures are free, successful categorisation no-match is chargeable, and AI calls do not also count as automation actions. Contract/unlimited arrangements differ. Use current Usage and Overages and credits for balances and Add-ons and extra usage for published rates.
Applicant payments are separate
Billing Payment methods pay Govform for the account. Service settings → Payment collects an applicant's fee into your merchant account. Changing one does not configure the other. Refunds of applicant payments remain in the merchant provider's tools.
See Pricing, Library user settings and AI action settings.